Tyler Shough has breakout performance against FIU

After two straight weeks of the Erik Ezukanma show as the player of the week, Tyler Shough decided to spread the ball around and wound up throwing for 399 yards and 4 touchdowns to lead Texas Tech to a 54-21 victory over the FIU Panthers. Shough played nearly a perfect game and had no turnovers in a game that saw the Red Raider offense take a giant step in the right direction after two underwhelming performances for the most part.

Shough posted his highest PFF grade of the season with an 81.5 offensive grade to go along with an 81.8 passing grade. He had three Big Time Throws, which are passes thrown with excellent ball location and timing that are generally downfield or in a tight window. His average depth of target was 11.8, which is crazy good considering that he had no turnovers and shows that he was constantly trying to push the ball downfield accurately.

This offense needed a game like this from Shough, especially heading into the opening conference game against Texas. Shough didn’t really look for EZ as much as he was the first few games of the season and allowed other guys to make plays for this offense. He also performed like this on a day where the running game wasn’t at its best, which showed that the passing game is more than capable of being the catalyst for this offense if need be.

Going into next week, I would love to see a game like this from Shough again. If we are going to beat the Longhorns, a stellar game from the quarterback will need to happen if we get into a shootout. I personally think that the running game will be a focal point for this offense and that it could possibly open things up for the passing game against their defense. Watch for a guy like Sarodorick Thompson to have his first monster game of the season after being out for the first two games and not utilized a whole lot last week.